1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods and systems for presenting popular internet searches.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the internet has grown, so has the importance of internet search engines as mechanisms for allowing persons accessing the internet to quickly and effectively find relevant information. A generic internet search engine typically receives inputted search queries from a user and returns results in the form of hyperlinks to relevant websites. More specialized search engines may return selected types of content, or otherwise allow customization of searches in various ways. Towards the goal of providing relevant responses to users, search engines must primarily perform the two functions of indexing internet content, and deciphering user-inputted search queries.
In order to index internet content, search engines may employ spiders, crawlers, bots, or other-termed software entities which can scour the internet in search of web-accessible content. This content is then indexed in various ways in order to categorize the relevance of the content for later retrieval. For example, this may be accomplished by storing links to the content and associating the links with key words found within the content itself. Thus, when a search query is inputted that contains recognized key words, then the stored links to content having those same key words may be retrieved and presented to the user.
In order to make search engines more user-friendly, much effort has been devoted to the development of algorithms which can better decipher user-inputted search strings. By analyzing the syntax, structure and wording of search queries, search engine developers continually refine the mechanisms by which search queries are interpreted.
Additionally, data may be derived from the body of search queries received by a search engine. It is in this context that embodiments of the invention arise.